Unionized workers of Samsung Electronics said they plan to protest against stalled wage talks with the management. There will be a full-fledged strike in the future, Yonhap news report said.
The National Samsung Electronics Union (NSEU), Samsung’s biggest union, and the company have held several rounds of talks and negotiations since January but failed to narrow their differences.
The unions have demanded a 6.5 percent pay increase with an additional paid day off. Samsung last month said that it has agreed with its workers to an average 5.1 per cent pay raise for the year.
The NSEU is the biggest labor union in Samsung Electronics with nearly 28,000 members, accounting for 22 percent of the company’s 125,000 employees.
The union said it plans to start its actions with a coordinated one-day use of collective leave by members on June 7 as a preliminary step toward a potential general strike.
“It may appear to be a passive walkout, but we are taking it one step at a time,” a union spokesperson said. “While it could lead to a general strike, which could fail in the end, the initiation of our first collective action is significant.”
If the NSEU stages a strike, it would mark the first-ever walkout by workers at the South Korean tech giant. Samsung Electronics never faced a strike since its founding in 1969.
After failing to reach a deal on wage hikes, the NSEU secured the legal authority to proceed with a strike following a mediation process by the National Labor Relations Commission and a subsequent vote among its members.
